racial profiling

Police arrest a demonstrator taking part a protest attended by thousands of Israeli-Ethiopians against police violence and racism, Tel Aviv. May 3, 2015. (Ben Kelmer/Flash90)

In Israel just as NY, racial profiling harms more than just victims of police killings

The judge who oversaw New York City’s stop and frisk case for nearly a decade responds to the shooting of an unarmed black man in northern Israel. By Shira Scheindlin I have been reading, with a troubling sense of déjà vu, about the police shooting of Solomon Tekah, an unarmed Ethiopian-Israeli man, in Haifa last week. As the judge…

By +972 Magazine July 7, 2019

Arab and Jewish citizens protest racial profiling at the entrance to Barzilai Medical Center, January 20, 2019. (Courtesy of Standing Together)

Activists pulled off bus for protesting racial profiling at Israeli hospital

Security guards remove the activists for protesting a new policy that singles out Palestinians on a public bus line in southern Israel. Security guards at an Israeli hospital detained 10 Arab and Jewish activists Sunday for an act of civil disobedience protesting a policy to single out, remove, and inspect Palestinians on a public bus…

By Edo Konrad January 20, 2019

Members of Anonymous wear Guy Fawkes masks at the Scientology center in Los Angeles. (Vincent Diamante/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Do I look like a terrorist? The dangers of facial profiling

An Israeli company has developed new technology to help identify terrorists according to their facial characteristics. By Merav Amir An Israeli start-up company recently made international news when it announced a new product that can identify terrorists simply by analyzing facial characteristics. Called Faception, the company offers its product to security agencies worldwide. This is not a…

By +972 Magazine September 4, 2017

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Arab passengers are profiled at Israeli airports and are often subject to strip searches, which Adalah says are illegal. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Strip-searching Arab passengers at Israeli airports is illegal, rights group says

Not only are Arabs profiled at Israeli airports, it turns out the way security personnel search and follow them may also be illegal. Despite dozens of testimonies, Airport Authority denies utilizing strip searches at all. Israeli airport security is notorious for profiling and discriminating against Arab passengers, from invasive and humiliating questioning and strip searches, assigning security officer…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man September 19, 2016

Illustrative photo of Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli military prison (By ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock.com)

Views on torture split along ethnic lines, Israeli poll finds

Attitudes toward torture in Israel differ significantly among Jews and Arabs. Poll also finds conciliatory views about the legitimacy of the ‘other’ and their claims to the land. More than 55 percent of Jewish Israelis think it is permissible to use “physical methods” of interrogation, i.e. torture, against terrorism suspects even if there is no “ticking…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man January 5, 2016

Israeli police conduct house-to-house searches for the suspect in a shooting that killed two people in central Tel Aviv, January 1, 2016. (Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

Israeli police raid Arab TAU students’ homes in search for shooter

In their search for the suspect in the Tel Aviv shooting attack, police are ‘visiting’ the homes and dorms of Palestinian students at Tel Aviv University. Joint List chair asks whether the university gave police info on innocent students. As part of the manhunt for Nashat Milhem, the suspect in the deadly Tel Aviv shooting…

By Orly Noy January 4, 2016

WATCH: Afraid to speak Arabic in public

Public expressions of racism toward Palestinians are nothing new in Israel, but along with a rise in violence and the accompanying societal tensions, Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel have more and more to fear — of Israeli civilians and police alike. Social TV asked young Palestinians in Jaffa what scares them most these days.

By Social TV November 5, 2015

Passengers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport (Photo by ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock.com)

High Court greenlights racial profiling at Israel’s airports

High Court rejects petition calling for an end to racial profiling against Arabs at Ben-Gurion Airport, yet refuses to make a principled ruling on the policy as a whole. Israel’s High Court of Justice rejected a petition by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), demanding an end to racial profiling at Ben-Gurion Airport on…

By Edo Konrad March 11, 2015

'Haaretz' newspaper (Photo: Hmbr/Wikimedia/CC)

Jeffrey Goldberg joins the ‘Haaretz’-bashing club

American columnist’s liberalism stops at Ben-Gurion Airport. But then again, we already knew that. For many years there was a running joke at Haaretz is that if every person who called to cancel their subscription actually had one, the paper wouldn’t have suffered a financial crisis. The latest to join the club is Jeffrey Goldbreg,…

By Noam Sheizaf June 5, 2014

Ben Gurion Airport. (joshuapiano/CC BY 2.0)

The ‘smaller’ indignities of occupation

I teach writing at a Palestinian university in the West Bank. Several of my students have been gracious enough to share their experiences with +972, albeit anonymously. This is the third of four short essays. Read parts one and two. As my siblings and I sat alone in an unfamiliar place waiting for my mother,…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat April 28, 2014

(Photo: Mati Milstein)

When racial profiling is a national policy

Palestinian citizens have many rights in Israel, but they are not equal citizens. Only by removing all discriminatory elements from the legal system will Israel cease to be a democracy of racial profiling. Following one of his visits to Israel, Jewish-American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg praised last year the ease with which he underwent the security procedures at…

By Noam Sheizaf April 25, 2013

Tel Aviv Beach (erikgstewart/CC BY NC 2.0)

Racial profiling on Tel Aviv beaches: A shared U.S.-Israeli value?

Inspectors in Tel Aviv once responsible for keeping beaches clean can now stop people they suspect of illegally residing in Israel. Like Arizona’s notorious S.B.1070 law, this could result in gross violations of the rights of both Israeli citizens and immigrants. Is this what politicians mean by “shared values?” By Paul Karolyi Politicians take every…

By +972 Magazine August 7, 2012

Lump (Photo: mike@bensalem/flickr CC 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Airport security turns citizens into lumps

The following op ed in Haaretz [Hebrew only] revisits the theme of how unpleasant it can be for an Arab citizen, native-born in Israel, to use his or her national airport to travel freely. Many people have heard this theme before; my colleague Aziz Abu Sarah has written about it thoughtfully, and I reported on…

By Dahlia Scheindlin March 3, 2012